The young man named Lynn took out a primitive "pendulum clock" made of wood gears from the box, an act that completely turned Todd's perception upside down.

In previous history, the pendulum was first discovered by Galileo, but the real "pendulum" was invented by the Dutch physicist Christian Huygens in 1657.

Although the "pendulum clock" in front of him is rough in workmanship and the appearance is very different from Todd's impression, the design of timing parts and oscillating parts is a unique invention of this era.

Todd looked at the slowly turning gears and turned to Ulysses, "How did you come up with gravity from this machine?"

Ulysses was a little excited when he said this: "When we found that the pendulum was falling, we wondered what force was pulling these heavy objects? Later, we experimented with stone, iron, and wood, and found that no matter how the weight and material changed, the time for the pendulum to go back and forth was always fixed, and we thought that there must be a force under our feet, giving these objects speed, a fixed speed!"

Todd listened and nodded, thinking to himself, although it is different from Newton's way of discovering gravity, it is a different entry point for the cognitive system of mechanics.

Ulysses, a qualified scholar, but definitely not a qualified businessman, pointed to the pendulum clock and continued: "Although we have discovered gravity, we cannot think of any other use for it than to use it for the design of the pendulum clock to calculate time. Moreover, this pendulum clock often has errors in calculating the time, and the wooden parts often need to be replaced......"

The young man was about to continue, but his companion could not listen, and poked Ulysses with his elbow and motioned for him to shut up.

Todd smiled, "You want to use this invention to get an investment from the Twilight Cooperative?"

Everyone nodded hurriedly.

Todd looked at the crowd in front of him, glanced at the pendulum clock again, and finally nodded and said, "I can fund you ......"

The faces of the crowd were first surprised, then surprised, and finally cheered loudly.

With his hands down, Todd motioned for the crowd to temporarily restrain his agitation, and he still had nothing to say: "But I asked you to write a book, a book on explaining gravity. Where does this power come from, how it acts on objects, what kind of energy characteristics it has, and so on. The amount of money I give you will increase or decrease depending on the quality of the book. ”

Hearing this strange request, everyone looked at each other, they never thought that the chief of the regiment would actually determine the amount of funding on the premise of studying "gravity".

Watching this group of students from the Capital Academy, monks who studied ancient books, and residents who loved research walk out of the Chief's Office together, Todd thought of the future technological innovation of Twilight Town. Because his professional direction is more inclined to biology and chemistry, he has no outstanding points in physics, especially mechanics, electromagnetism and thermodynamics. If we want to carry out the industrial revolution in the future, we will inevitably rely on the continuous progress of the world's own scientific level.

Thinking of this, Todd picked up the unfinished paper again and wrote hard.

The next day, two notices were issued in front of the church in Twilighttown. The first is to notify the holders of the relics of the "Twilight Mutual Aid Society" to come and receive the dividends of the Society's operation for one year, and the second is to hold a celebration called the "Story Contest" throughout the town of Twilight.

The residents of Twilight Town have a good understanding of the first notice, except for the new word "dividends". The key thing that made everyone wonder was the second announcement about the story celebration.

Regarding the celebration notice of the "Story Contest", Todd's handwritten notice is as follows:

In order to enrich the entertainment life of residents and discover the literary talents of the town, this story contest is specially held.

1. There are no restrictions on the identity, occupation, age and gender of the participants.

2. This contest only accepts text submissions, with no restrictions on the type of text, the length of the story, and the subject matter.

3. The submission period is one month, and the review team will judge the participating stories from multiple aspects such as plot, idea, and writing, and select the top three to give each of them a reward of 100 silver months.

4. For the top three award-winning stories, the town will hire a theater troupe to adapt them into plays and perform them in the whole town, and all ticket revenue will go to the authors.

As soon as such an announcement spread, at first, the residents of the entire town of Twilight were full of question marks. There is only one thought in people's minds, what does the Holy Son want to do?

But when you think about it, those lords in other places collect taxes indiscriminately, cut off people's heads, and exercise the "power of the first night" at every turn, compared to the actual controller of Twilight Town, Lord Todd, just likes to read stories written by others, which is really valuable.

Therefore, the residents who are grateful for the kindness of the Son plan to dedicate the best stories to Lord Todd. But there is another problem, the story must be handed in words, and the huge town of Duxi, with a population of nearly 2,000, has less than 200 people who can read.

This may seem like an awkward proportion, but if you look at the medieval world as a whole, the literacy rate in Twilight was already very high. You know, the priests in some town churches can't even read the words of the Bible, and every time they give a lecture at Mass, they are talking nonsense, which is definitely nothing new.

In desperation, a new profession has emerged in Twilight Town, "Book Recorder". Most of these people were monks and students, who were commissioned by the wealthy to receive remuneration and put their stories into words and submit them to the church.

The one-month submission period passed quickly, and the church received a total of 132 submissions. In terms of text, there are Latin, common languages and even a few are Northland. Todd sat at the table, looking over one by one, the more disappointed he became.

Most of the stories submitted are stories of praising the Father and singing about holy miracles, and some of them are actually Todd's folk legends, such as the Great War on Pirates, exorcism rituals, heresy trials, and so on.

Todd was speechless, and at noon the next day, just when he was about to lose hope in the "story contest", a submission signed by Hans Christian Andersen came into his sight.

Mr. Hans was a baron-to-be of the Kingdom of the Silver Ring, who was captured in battle with the Cumberland army after serving as a military clerk in the Southern Legion's attack on Twilight. Because his family was poor, he couldn't afford to pay the ransom of the nobles, so he had to become a prisoner and take charge of some written and numerical work on the town's reconstruction site.

In this "Story Contest", the work he submitted was a short story called "Mockingbird".

The story is narrated from the voice and perspective of a 7-year-old boy.

There is a boy who has been frail and sickly since he was a child, his mother died in childbirth, and his father barely supported the family by getting up early and working several jobs.

Father and son depend on each other.

War broke out, and the boy's father was forcibly drafted into battle by the army.

The boy lay alone in a damp and cold room, waiting for his father to return, but the latter was never heard from and never returned home.

The boy, who was in a high fever, dreamed that he had turned into a bird, flew over the city wall, flew over the river, came to the battlefield where the two armies were fighting, and found his father, who had been missing for a long time.

At the end of the story, the comrades bury the bodies of the war dead, only to find a robin dead in front of a tombstone.

Todd's eyes were red, and he quietly drew a circle around the manuscript.